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LONDON/BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua) -- In the year 2016, the agility of the European Union (EU) in negotiating economic, political and social challenges is being tested.
From a Greek debt showdown to the Brexit shock, from the unease over security after Brussels terrorist attack to the unprecedented influx of refugees, the crises engulfing Europe are multiplying.
The root cause of the terrorist threats and refugee crisis, experts say, is the chaos and misery the United States has helped introduce to countries including Iraq, Libya and Syria, and Washington also bears some responsibilities to the Brexit and Europe's lingering economic malaise.
The EU is currently struggling with the worst refugee crisis since World World II, as migrants from war-torn Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have been flocking to the continent.
The United States should be held responsible for the refugee crisis in Europe, German Middle East expert Michael Lueders said in an interview with Xinhua.
Western military intervention in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Libya has led to chaos and anarchy, said Lueders, a board member of the German Near and Middle East Association and vice-chairman of the German Orient Foundation.
Most of the refugees fleeing to Europe came precisely from those countries that have been intervened, he said.
According to Lueders, the military intervention in the Arab world and the determination of the West to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should take the blame for all the chaos in Syria.
"They wanted to see him overthrown and then install a new, pro-Western government. However, this strategy has failed. The result is the fueling of the war," he said.
An official inquiry into Britain joining the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was published Wednesday after seven years of preparation, marking Britain's reflection on the war that has far-reaching consequences including the rise of the terrorist group of Islamic State (IS).
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's leadership in the run-up to and during the war is sharply criticized in the inquiry.
Britain joined the war, which was unauthorized by the United Nations, on the basis of flawed intelligence and with "wholly inadequate" planning and preparations, and before peaceful options were exhausted, concluded the 2.6 million-word inquiry report.
The alleged threat from Iraq was at that time "presented with a certainty that was not justified" by Blair, who was found to have assured Britain's commitment eight months before the war started.
Blair on Wednesday defended himself, insisting that the "right" war decision was made "in what I believed to be the best interests of the country," and that "the world is better and safer" after the war removed then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power.
However, Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, cited to justify the war, were not found inside Iraq when British combat forces withdrew in 2009 with 179 troops killed, 150,000 Iraqis dead, mostly civilians, and over 1 million people displaced.
"The people of Iraq have suffered greatly," said retired civil servant John Chilcot who chaired the British inquiry.
Admission of mistakes, and Blair's accountability whatsoever, cannot alleviate the sufferings of the people in Iraq, where an IS-claimed bombing hit a crowded shopping area in its capital Baghdad days ago, causing at least 250 deaths.
Iraq has since the war descended into violence and instability that helped breed the Islamic State group.
The Islamic State has also been responsible for many terror attacks in Western countries such as France, Belgium and the United States. Its expansion in the Middle East includes a significant role in the Syrian civil war. This has worsened the region's political chaos and security situation that have generated refugee influxes to Europe.
The refugee inflows have stepped up pressures on European countries amid political and economic difficulties. This has also helped give rise to Xenophobic nationalism among people who fear to lose jobs to foreigners in a time of financial and economic hardships.
The fear has been a significant factor in the referendum in Britain on whether the country should leave the EU. The Leave camp won the referendum with a narrow margin by obtaining about 52 percent of ballots.
The shock result sent many of the regional stock markets tumbling at a time when Europe has been preoccupied with immigrant crisis and lingering debt issue. The London stock market suffered but the European markets suffered more, showing vulnerability of the bloc.
While Europe's sovereign debt issue can be largely attributed to the dichotomy of its unified monetary policymaking and separate fiscal policymaking, the Brexit has undoubtedly added to its challenges.
"The United States needs to wake up to its responsibilities in Europe," said Danielle Allen, a political theorist at Harvard University, in an article published in the Washington Post late June.
"The rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, including in Britain, has been fueled by the Syrian crisis; the roots of the Syrian crisis can be traced back to our invasion of Iraq," said Allen. Enditem
